The Iraq War: A Documentary and Reference Guide gives readers the opportunity to investigate this costly and controversial conflict as professional researchers do-by looking closely at key samples of historical evidence. As readers will see, that evidence proves to be extraordinarily revealing about the drive to war, the course of the initial invasion, the counter-insurgency, the "surge," and the continuing difficulties in unifying and stabilizing the country post-Saddam.

From relevant exchanges in the 2000 Bush/Gore debates, to soldiers' blogs, to the latest reorganization of the Coalition Provisional Authority, The Iraq War gives readers an insider's view of the conflict's key decisions and events. Each chapter brings together primary and secondary sources on an important phase of the war, with the author providing context, analysis, and insights from a historian's perspective. The book also provides an overall introduction to working with the documentary record-a particularly difficult task in this case, as so many vital sources will remain classified and inaccessible for years to come.